Paradise Driver

Friday, June 01, 2007

IT ONLY HAPPENS

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON

Made the pick up at 3:20a. The north part of central Kihei. Young couple, very early 20's.

"Where are we headed this morning?"

The guy asks the girl

"Where do you live?"

Very long pause.

"I don't care." She replied.
"Don't you live in Maui Meadows?" He pressed.
In a drunken whine, "I can't go there!"

"Then where do you want the driver to take you?"

Very, very pregnant pause, followed by loud slurping.

"Take us to Keala." He stammered.

For the next 10 minutes the slurping sound continued, unabated. Punctuated by gags and chokes. As we approach the destination, he asked her some question, below my hearing threshold.

"Driver change it to Auhana Street."
"No problem. Just point out the house when we get there."

The slurping stopped as they repositioned themselves on the rear seat. 2 minutes later, we arrive.

Pull into the drive and illuminate the interior. As I turn, he's backing out the right rear door and she is still sprawled on the seat. Panties dangling from her left ankle, the dress she had been wearing on the floor. I chuckled, turned my head away.

"I am sorry about this, sir" the poor kid stammered.

More than his face was blushing.

"Is this where I get gang-banged?" She gleefully chirped.
"Yeah, come on. Sorry, sir."

He tossed me a $20.

"Keep the change."

Fare was $11.90.

"Thanks," I laughed. "Have a nice night."

"I plan to!" She boasted.

And they walked to the front door of the house. She carrying her clothes in one hand and his penis in the other.

Believe me, that was the most interesting ride of the night. Hell, of the past couple of years.

Back on March 28th I posted a pic of my odometer reading 77777.7.
Just after I started, last night, it rolled over another 10,000 miles.

***

The rest of my shift was really boring. I only drove 69 miles last night, pulling in 8 fares. It took 90 minutes before I had my first run. Two drivers, one "day" and one "night" bailed by 9p and 3 more departed at 10p. That left just Hardin, TMR and myself. And that was actually one more cab than we really needed. I had 4 runs by 11p and poor Hardin had only had one. I think TMR had two. I took a 90 minute break, my back has been acting up, and came back out at 12:40a. They each had added one run.

Whoopie!

Hardin gave up at 1:30a and TMR got our single request from the bar close. I had one other "Dog Watch" fare and then Wally showed up for the day shift. I was home by 5a.

Bada Bings was closed by 1a, for absolute lack of business. They had more staff on the floor than paying customers. LAB was empty by 1:45a and it was the last one to close it doors. Very pathetic.

***

Here are some other pics I took of this morning's moonset. They are all the original size and those indicated have only had the contrast enhanced.

Enjoy!

PIC # 1

PIC # 1 - contrast enhanced

PIC # 2

PIC # 2 - contrast enhance

PIC # 3

PIC # 4

PIC # 5

PIC # 6

PIC # 6 - contrast enhanced

***

Check back tomorrow. No telling what I might have as an adventure.

Mahalo

Aloha

THE PICTURE GALLERY

Black Sand Beach
Hana

Little Beach (left)
Big Beach (right)
The "Flying Wedge" Above Them
Is the Maui Prince

Surfing Ho'okipa

Windsurfing
Ho'okipa

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"

Thursday, May 31, 2007

ANOTHER SLOW NIGHT

BUT A PRETTY ONE

Around a quarter past 7p, I am sent to the Kea Lani. One person going to OGG. Now THATS the way to start a shift!

The sun had just set and this was the view, through the Kea Lani lobby, that I was treated to. Usually, its dark and the ocean can't be seen. Isn't that beautiful?

My fare was a lady from Chicago. Most of her trips to Hawai'i are usually business related. This one was strictly pleasure. She is in "up-scale wallcoverings". That translates into expensive wallpaper.

On my return, I picked up a regular headed to work in central Kihei. Then it died for an hour. Moved out of Wailea, into Kihei, at 9:30p and did two more runs. Two hours later, midnight, I had three "flags" out of the "Triangle" in succession and then one run at bar close. Same total of runs as Tuesday but more $$s. Logged 107 miles (172 km). It'll probably be this way for the next two weeks. As I have noted before, our summer season begins to roll about the 15th of June, which falls on a Friday this year.

Mary (#21) was my relief this morning. She was on before 4:00a and I was home before 5a. I didn't have one solitary graveyard run.

As I turned the phone and reservations over to her, I saw this gorgeous "Blue" moon setting over Wailea.

Not professional, but I think I got a good pic, considering the camera I am using. I am getting better with it. I was very good with 35mm SLRs but digital is a wee bit different.

***

I use a hands free headset for my personal cell phone and the "company" phone. It is called EARGLOVE. Of all the headsets I've tried, this is definitely the most comfortable. Sadly, they don't last very long. Usually a wire will break after 45-60 days and I have to buy a replacement. The only place I have been able to find them is at Radio Shack. My current one bit the dust on Tuesday night, so I stopped to get a new one last night. Simple, right. The CSR that approached me with the dreaded

"May I help you, sir?"

was worse than useless. He had difficulty grasping the fact that I wanted a headset, not a case cover. That, even though I've purchased 5 of these from this very store over the past year, they have NEVER carried that product and it most likely wouldn't work with my phone.

GEEZ!

I was so tempted to reach past his neck tendons and grab his windpipe, just to gain his undivided attention but that would just bring on more headaches than I wanted to deal with. With a bit of Irish luck I'll get an OGG tomorrow evening and be able to stop by Wal-Mart, in Kahului, and see what they have. They're open until 11p. If that a no go then I'll try splicing the very tiny wires, by-passing the broken section. Not pretty but functional.

***

The most popular rental car on the island:

Ford Mustang convertible

***

Everybody have a fantastic day.

Another set of "purdy pitchures" tomorrow and maybe even an interesting story, rather than the recent drool of drivel.

Mahalo

Aloha

THE PICTURE GALLERY

Glassy Ocean

Kihei

Wailea

Huelo

Garden Island Of Kauai

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

EDITORIAL REVIEW

FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Plaut decided to become a New York City cabbie after getting laid off from a job as an advertising copywriter, then began posting about her interactions with patrons on a blog that forms the backbone of this memoir. The anecdotal structure has its weaknesses, repeating the cycle of passengers getting in the cab, engaging in conversation with Plaut, then leaving either a generous tip or a lousy one. There are also a number of scenes set at the garage, where she slowly develops a friendship with a 62-year-old transsexual driver while struggling to avoid another senior cabbie with bladder control problems. Plaut's growing dissatisfaction with the job provides the memoir with an emotional undercurrent. She has trouble shaking off the feeling that she's wasting her potential, and the drain of interacting with abusive passengers and a hostile police force eventually sets her to dreaming of dying in a car crash. In the end, however, she's grown more comfortable with her fate, ready to continue circling the streets looking for fares. Her storytelling technique may be uneven in this debut, but it shows promise. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information
A division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
All rights reserved.

The only bone of contention I have with this review is the reference to

repeating the cycle of passengers getting in the cab, engaging in conversation with Plaut, then leaving either a generous tip or a lousy one

That's what the life of a cabbie is. A multitude of interactions with strangers. Every hour of every shift. Ad nauseam.

Snippets of life.

"Let's all be careful out there!"

THE DAY AFTER A HOLIDAY

IS ALWAYS DEAD

The best part of my shift was watching the sun set. Pretty, isn't it? I liked the effects on the clouds, south of Wailea Lookout. The after

glow was breathtaking. And this morning's setting of the almost full moon was very ruddy.

Made very little money. Only drove a total of 72 miles (116 km) and metered below $100, on 8 runs.

The nicest folks of the shift were a newlywed couple that I took from Sansei to Wailea. They had married on Sunday and arrived on Mau'i late Monday. He was from London and she was from Dallas. My obvious question was:

"How'd y'all meet?"

Turns out that they both work for the same company and are now residents of NYC.

I had absolutely NO reservations to pass on to the day-shift. I don't know the current occupany percents of the hotels but it is usually very low at this time of year. Graduations, etc., on the mainland.

If you think this post is dull, you should try living the shift that got me here.

B O R I N G !

Sneak a peek in here tomorrow.

Maybe it will get better. God, I hope so.

Mahalo

Aloha

THE PICTURE GALLERY

Sugar Beach

Beach In Wailea

Beach In Kihei

Puna Coast
Big Island

Diving Molokini

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

MEMORIAL MONDAY

PLEASANT DAY/NIGHT

There hasn't been a story in our local "rag" about that car fire I reported on Saturday. So, the rumors must have been just that. Rumors.

Had dinner at Judy's. Some "take-away" that I picked up on my way there. Since HEROES is on hiatus until late September, we opted to watch The History Channel instead.

Earlier in the day I watched "Band Of Brothers". Probably the best miniseries that HBO ever produced.

***

My co-worker, Tina, who also is a licensed "Activities" agent/broker. Runs her own business. She and some friends recently did the horseback "thing" inside Haleakala. She said it was a lot of fun. She passed some photos to me (sunset excluded) for today's THE PICTURE GALLERY. Hope you enjoy them.

Short post today. I am tired and want to get some extra sleep before I go back to work tonight.

I hope everyone (in the US) had a great 3-day weekend. Now you only have 4 days in which to cram 5 days worth of work.

Have fun.